Letters to the Editor Wednesday

Regarding B. Seth Walker’s Feb. 5 letter, “Georgia should accept cuts to military bases,” I will not bore you or myself with statistics.

While it is true that the Ft. Stewart/Hunter AAF complex is a magnificent training facility, offering some of the best training ground for our troops available anywhere, it is also about the people.

The families at Fort Stewart and Hunter are a vital part of our community.

Growing up in Savannah in the ’70s and ’80s, many of my best friends were “Army brats” whose dads were stationed at Hunter. Those families were a vital part of our neighborhood and our school.

Many of those families considered Savannah “home” and stayed here.

In the more than 70-year-period that Hunter Army Airfield and Fort Stewart have been providing for our national defense, they have also been good neighbors to us.

Those who were here in the interim when Hunter closed during its transition from Air Force base to Army Air Field can tell you there was a void in town when there was no more sound coming from those runways.

I am not a fan of lobbyists, either. But if that’s what it takes to keep my neighbors, then I will support the cause.

ROBERT BRUNN

Savannah

Any gun pointed at me is an assault weapon

After hearing and reading all the debate over gun control, I would like to respond.

First, anyone who believes assault weapons are AK-47 and M-16 designs have never had a pump shotgun pointed at them, loaded with 00 buckshot.

Most semi-auto weapons will misfire or jam many times more than a pump shotgun.

Every shot of 00 buckshot sends 12 projectiles down the barrel of the weapon — 48 projectiles with four shells in pump shot gun with a plug; 72 projectiles without a plug.

Most people are not informed enough about ballistics to make a judgment about firearms.

Any weapon pointed at me is an assault weapon.

I am not a criminal, am sane enough to have served my country for 26 years and the Supreme Court has ruled I have a right to be armed.

For those who want to know why I need or want an M-16 or AK-47, I need the weapons with my shotguns to protect myself when the government cannot protect me.

NORMAN DAVISWORTH’

Glennville

Stop letting government scam us on spending

American citizens hold power and responsibility for the country’s fiscal health. But we have let government ruin our economy by spending hundreds of trillions in tax revenue, and then, spending $100 trillion above and beyond the tax revenue by using debt.

Is government responsible for paying this debt? No, U. S. citizens are.

Then how much of our income are we effectively taxed when our debt is added to our bill? With a GDP of $14 trillion, we would have to pay 100 percent of our income every year for about 10 years just to pay back what we owe today. That makes our effective tax rate way above 100 percent.

How does it feel to be taxed more than 100 percent of your income? What’s weird about this is how we, the citizens, let the government scam us like this.

Best I can tell, Democrats and Republicans were and are involved. Both agreed at various times to continue this fiscal “scheme” started decades ago as a way to “save” us from financial disaster. Now, politicians tell us even more of our income is necessary.

“Don’t worry,” they say, “more government spending will solve the fiscal problem.” If we believe that, we deserve the disaster we’re getting. However, our children will look back and realize what we did to them. I hope we’re ready to face that reality.

MIKE EARLY

Richmond Hill

Keep our nation’s military on the job

I find it hard to believe that our federal officials are so short-sighted that they want to cut our military when there is so much unrest in the world today.

When we lose the trained military members, who will be affected by the proposed cutbacks?

Are any of our leaders thinking about what kind of increase that will make in our unemployment rate?

These are highly skilled individuals. Can our civilian workforce absorb all of them?

As a retired business owner, I understand the need for painful cutbacks when the economy calls for it, but why not exhaust other means first?

Every day there are military members whose enlistment is up or who are retiring, and likewise, on the civilian side. What percentage could be handled this way through attrition? How about civilian new hire freezes?

Who is working on consolidation of units for fiscal efficiencies? How about changing the law so that our military can be used to protect our border with Mexico? It would be a huge benefit for our country.

We could retain trained military, would not increase unemployment and should decrease illegal immigration. I see that as a win-win all around.

Do we really want to put our career military in the unemployment lines because we’re done with them now?

Surely, as Americans, we can find a way to do better than this.

ROY WILLIAMSON

Savannah

No group has the monopoly on failure

In response to the Feb. 3 letter from Marilyn Jackson, the “white folks,” as she chooses to blame for the termination of former City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney, are not the bad guys here.

Mayor Edna Jackson did exactly what she had to do when the actions were deemed necessary.

I am sick and tired of the black community blaming the white man for their failures. The product of failure is not biased to any race.

The word entitlement should be stricken from the vocabulary. This country was built on the backs of good people, black and white. Ms. Small-Toney was using the good citizens of Savannah as her personal bank account.

All people should get off their lazy rear ends, whether they’re black or white, and earn their positions in society.

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I'm just grateful those two are being openly discussed at last. Because the present course ain't gonna last. Or to use the latest buzz word it is 'unsustainable'. Sadly the empty chatter goes on and on from so many erected reprehensibles who try desperately to bob, duck, and weave so as to sustain it all somehow. I and three or four others see all this as just a save-my-entitlements charade. Nothing can be done unless and until those sacred cows are either altered or butchered. I prefer the former.